The fictitious companyPMR, a communications agency based in Hong Kong was set up, backed by a fictitious Chinese businessman. PMR has plenty of money to spend and wants to hire influential British politicians to join its advisory board and get a foothold in the UK and Europe.12 MPs who already had significant outside interests were invited to apply for jobs with PMR.Not all politicians are for hire. Half of those approached didn’t respond. One said he wanted to check us out in Hong Kong so we took it no further. And another said he just wasn’t that interested. Of the others, two stood out – Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Jack Straw.

“We have seen the disturbing allegations against Jack Straw in the Daily Telegraph. The Chief Whip has spoken to Jack Straw. He has agreed to refer himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and in the meantime he has agreed the best course of action is to suspend himself from the Parliamentary Labour Party.”

“I’m well aware of the fact that I bring my name. I know everyone anyway, I’ve got their phone numbers… If I’m doing a speech or something, it’s £5,000 a day, that’s what I charge.”

And explaining how he used his influence to change EU rules for a company that pays him £60,000-a-year:

“I got in to see the relevant director general and his officials in Brussels … and we got the sugar regulations changed,” he said. “I mean … the crucial thing about this, it’s all, it’s public that the regulations have been changed, but the best way of dealing with these things is under the radar”

Intelligence committee chairman Malcolm Rifkind, when asked by undercover reporters how he could help a fictional Chinese company:

“You’d be surprised how much free time I have. I spend a lot of time reading, I spend a lot of time walking. I’m self-employed. So nobody pays me a salary.”

Flirting with the far-right? UKIP leader Nigel Farage says he reckons French Front National leader Marine Le Pen is “so sexy”. Read all about naughty Nige and more in Guido’s Sun on Sunday column today:

The Father, the Son and the Labour Ghost: Justin Welby’s son works for Tony Blair

Tory MP divorces his secretary, marries his office manager, keeps them both on the payroll

Labour’s General secretary Iain McNicol ‘punches the air and pretends to be Rocky’

Why did Chuka dodge tax question 5 times? He’s just taken £5,000 from subsidiary of a firm in Dubai, where rate is 0%

How is Labour’s new £33,000-a-year aide in charge of celebrity endorsements getting on?

Yet another one jumps: the Telegraph’s Whitehall and Investigations editor Holly Watt, of expenses scandal and Vince Cable sting fame, joins the Guardian. Will the last person to leave the Telegraph please pay back the HSBC loan…[…]

The Department of Energy & Climate Change are probably wishing they hadn’t commissioned a “Social Listening Evaluation” in an attempt to justify a “Tweetathon” they held last year. The 45 page report published today comes to a shocking conclusion. No […]

Quote of the Day

“I read more bloggers now than mainstream columnists, because they’ve got more interesting things to say. Too many columnists today make you think, ‘Yeah, I think you’ve said that 10 times before and I’ve just noticed your column has not go a single fact in it’”.